Caterpillar’s centenary in 2025

Caterpillar celebrates its centenary in 2025.

By MJ Woof November 25, 2024 Read time: 2 mins

Caterpillar will launch its centenary celebrations at the CES 25 event in Las Vegas in January 2025

In 2025 it will be 100 years since Best and Holt called a halt to their legal battles and joined together to form Caterpillar.

The firm will launch its Centennial Celebration during the CES 2025 event in Las Vegas in January 2025. Caterpillar’s exhibit will provide visitors the opportunity to reflect on the company’s global impact over the last century as well as envision what’s in store for the future. The firm’s exhibit, “The Next 100 Years: Experience What’s Possible,” will feature a powerful combination of technologies and expertise designed to highlight some of the ways Caterpillar is evolving with customers through the energy transition.

“Caterpillar was founded in 1925 with an innovative spirit, aimed at helping our customers overcome practical problems and challenges. Over the past 100 years, the company has built on a revolutionary legacy — creating industry-leading products, technologies, services and solutions,” said Rob Hoenes, senior vice president of Caterpillar’s Electrification + Energy Solutions division.

Taking centre stage at the Caterpillar exhibit will be a Cat 972 wheeled Loader featuring a technical demonstrator Extended Range Electrified Machine hybrid retrofit. The demonstrator maintains or exceeds performance similar to a diesel machine and does not require DC charging. The retrofit could eliminate the need for additional electrical infrastructure at job sites.

“What sets this demonstrator apart from other Cat battery electric machines is an additional power source,” said Rob Janssen, vice president and general manager of Caterpillar’s Electrification + Energy Solutions division. “In this case, it’s a conventional diesel generator running AC power to a rectifier, which converts energy from AC to DC. The energy created is used to charge the battery, drive the machine or both.”

Cat machines nearing end-of-life can be rebuilt and repowered in a way that allows them to function as part of a reduced-carbon future. The machines can be driven on 100% zero emission battery power for several hours. For extended operation, the machine can operate on hybrid mode with electricity generated from an onboard gen set. The technology is an option for customers looking to lower emissions, but not ready to go all-in on battery electric. It charges overnight on a regular utility grid connection at 240V.

Visitors to the Caterpillar exhibit will also experience a virtual job site of the future showcasing examples of the infrastructure required to support electrified job sites, varying charging schedules, and the complexities of a job site powered by the full Caterpillar ecosystem.

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Caterpillar rolls out electric excavator and wheeled loader prototypes for construction

The electric prototypes are the 301.9 mini excavator, 320 medium excavator, 950 GC medium wheeled loader and 906 compact wheeled loader. The machines are powered by Caterpillar battery prototypes and include an onboard AC charger. Cat says it also plans to offer an offboard DC fast charging option. All four models feature Caterpillar’s dedicated blue branding for electric machines.

In addition to construction, Cat says the 22-tonne 320 excavator is suitable for quarrying operations. It utilises five 600V Cat lithium-ion batteries that provide a total of 320kw/h electric power.

Thierry Brasseur, Caterpillar medium wheeled loader product and applications specialist, said that this enables up to six hours’ operation before recharging is required. More demanding operations, such as trenching, will have a shorter period before recharging is necessary.

The 19.7-tonne GC wheeled loader is suitable for secondary operations in quarrying and uses four Cat 300V lithium-ion batteries for a total of 256kw/h electric power. It takes around one hour to recharge.

Both the 320 medium excavator and 950 GC medium wheeled loader can use DC fast charging.

Cat construction industries group president Tony Fassino commented, “It’s important we meet customers on their sustainability journey today with a variety of solutions including machines that run on renewable fuels or technology that increases fuel efficiency, as well as supporting them into the future as we power our next generation of machines.”

The four machines feature Caterpillar-designed batteries that will also be available to power other industrial applications. The lithium-ion battery range has a modular design to offer flexible configurations across multiple applications. Cat says the batteries are engineered to be scalable to industry and customer performance needs and maximise sustainability throughout their lifecycle, including recycling and reuse at the end of life.

“We’re focused on helping our customers achieve the optimal product and jobsite energy lifecycle, allowing them to maximise value and minimise their total cost of operation,” said Joe Creed, energy & transportation group president.

The 301.9 and 906 are expected to be the first of the four electric prototypes to become commercially available models, although specific launch dates have not yet been given.